I recently got hold of this '84 TFV60-MS through Yahoo Japan. In near mint condition I was surprised I was the only bidder but happy for that. I still would like to get hold of a white TFV-50 like Marcus's but they never seem to show up.

Hi there! Looks nice, you don't get to see them that often. Schenker was endorsed by Aria, the Pro II XXMS which he hardly ever used. Gibson never did a MS style V as opposed to many of the Japanese brands. Don't know if Burny/Fernandes or Greco were the first maker but later on ESP sent him two prototypes to try out. He thought those were to light weight and turned to Dean, which he's endorsed by now. Edwards still makes a dot and also block inlay version of the MS V but as you say, I doubt he makes any money from it.

Actually, there was a Japan-only dealer-specific Gibson V with MS b/w paint job. I've only ever seen it in the original Japanese advert (in a Mooks book) and if I find one, I'll buy it first and tell y'all about it later.

The Tokai MSV is a lot of fun. I did see a Greco MSV during the same Tokyo trip, but I stuck with Tokai.

I forgot about that Aria that Schenker used, but I remember it was mentioned in an article in a US guitar magazine about his gear (same article where he explained that in a blind test of pickups done with his tech, he ended up preferring the Shaller Golden 50 pickups.